Friday, November 25, 2005

Weekly Gas Price Update (11/21/05)
























Judging from the number of Google keyword hits on this site, the gas price graphs I posted in September (scroll down to the 2nd entry) remain of considerable interest. So here is an update of weekly price of regular gas in the U.S., in real (that is, adjusted for inflation) dollars (based on October 2005 CPI excluding energy). The weekly series begins 8/20/1990 and includes 11/21/2005.

As you can see, retail gasoline is now back to pre-Katrina prices.

While some have argued that gas prices have driven President Bush's approval ratings, the recent drop in price has not corresponded to a rise in approval, at least so far.

Data: The weekly price series is available from the Department of Energy's Weekly Petroleum Status Report here. The link is to the Excel file.

Prices were adjusted using the CPI, excluding energy prices, available from the St. Louis Federal Reserve here.